DIY Monogram Planter Tutorial

Follow this step-by-step tutorial and woodworking plans to build this large outdoor DIY monogram planter in the letter of your choice, for a welcoming and personalized front porch decoration.

Sometimes we see an idea that we love and we know you will too — but we underestimate just how much you all will love it. This beautiful DIY monogram planter has gone viral over on Facebook with over 125 THOUSAND shares in just a couple of days! Michelle and her husband Ryan are here today sharing all the details about how to build your own letter planter. 

Michelle and Ryan’s letter planter design creates mini planter rows for the soil and plants, so you can replant as often as you want, unlike some of the monogram planters that I’ve seen that use chicken wire to hold the plants in, making it more like a one-time planting experience. It looks great with flowers, but wouldn’t this be a fun herb garden, too?

Enough of me gushing… here is Michelle with all the details for you to build your own!

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Outdoor DIY Monogram Planter
by Michelle from Ellery Designs

More letters are coming soon — take the survey here to tell us which letter to do plans for next.

DIY Monogram Planter Plans

We’ve created full detailed woodworking plans to help you build your own monogram planter! Use the drop-down menu below to choose from the available plans. More letter planter plans are coming soon — take the survey here to tell us which letter to do plans for next.

You can also watch a video tutorial here and read common FAQS about the planter here. 

How to Build Your Own Custom DIY Monogram Planter

Hi there! Michelle here with Ellery Designs and I’m so excited to be guest posting our DIY Monogram Planter with the Remodelaholic readers! This had such a positive response on social media and I’m so excited to share the details with you today. The letter we made is really large – 4 ft x 4.5 ft x 5 inches deep to be exact. My hubby came up with this idea and executed it all! I just planted it 🙂 The options are endless – I can’t wait to decorate it differently for each season and holiday! Fake blooms would look great here too if you don’t want to worry about watering.

DIY Monogram Planter Materials

The printable woodworking plans include specific material and cut lists for each letter. 

• Cedar (purchased at Menards)
  • 1×12 cedar for the back of the letter*
  • 1×4 cedar for the sides
  • 1×3 cedar for the front
  • 1×6 cedar for the planter slats
• 18 gauge 1 3/4 brad nails (and nail gun)
• Gorilla Wood Glue (used on all of the joints with the brads)
• Compound Miter Saw
• Kreg-Jig
• Miracle Gro Potting Mix
• Flowers (We used impatiens since this is a shaded area.)

Cost

Obviously the materials will vary depending on how large you construct your initial and what letter you will be building. Like I mentioned earlier, our K is really large (4 feet tall!) so it wasn’t a cheap project. The material for the cedar cost approx $150 and the plant material and soil was roughly $40 but had many left over flowers.

*We used 1×12 cedar for the backing, but the woodworking plans use 1×6 lumber since it’s more readily available in all areas and typically a bit less expensive.

See more DIY planter tutorials here

DIY Monogram Planter Step by Step Tutorial

First, Ryan built the base/backside of the K – no, he didn’t trace anything just kind of created it as he went. But we’ve done the math for you to calculate lengths and angles for each letter monogram woodworking plan!

He made the base of the K using 1×12’s and used his kreg jig to piece this together.

Next, he used the 1×4 pieces of cedar to complete the sides. Yes, it’s a lot of cuts and patience. But again — we did the math for you in the monogram letter planter woodworking plans to make it as easy as possible!

He used his compound miter saw to make all of the cuts. Each piece is secured with brad nails and Gorilla Wood Glue.

After the sides are complete, next are 1×3’s for the front pieces, the letter “frame” trim. Again, a lot more cuts (which are calculated for you in the printable plans! 😉 )

Next, he completed the inside planter slats using 1×6 cedar, mitered along the back edges using a table saw and using brad nails to secure in place at a 45 degree angle.

Related: Make your table saw easier to use with a DIY table saw workbench.

Once the slats were complete, he drilled small holes on the bottom of each one to allow for water to drain properly. (Note that in the woodworking plans, for ease of construction, the slats are installed before the front trim.)

The slats are about 7 inches apart, and the placement gives about 3 1/2″ of soil depth for planting.

Lastly, he hung it up by screwing it directly into the siding using extra long screws. Be sure to use the appropriate hardware for your material, because this is a large heavy planter!

Next it was time to plant this baby! Since this is a fully shaded area, my options were limited as to which flowers would work in shade only, so went with colorful impatiens.

One thing I learned is do not over pack with dirt – less is more. The first time you water them it may be a bit messy with excess dirt pouring out but not a big deal! You could add landscape fabric or old coffee filters to keep the soil from washing out.

We only water these about every three days or so since these flowers are very easy to keep alive and low maintenance. Again, since this is made of cedar and our siding is vinyl we don’t need to worry about any water damage.

And that’s it!! I know, it’s a bit complicated if you’re not comfortable using saws and intricate cuts but I’m beyond happy with how this turned out! And now that we’ve created detailed woodworking plans for many letters (and more coming!), we’ve made the cuts as easy possible for you. 

The best part – it was 100% a unique idea! Kudos to my handy hubby! Like I said, your options are endless!

See the monogram letter planter plans we’ve created so far here — and fill out this survey to tell us what letter you want next!

We hope you love it as much as we do! If you give it a try, be sure to share and tag me @ellerydesigns on Instagram so I can see!

Get the printable monogram planter tutorial + plans HERE

Reader-Built Monogram Letter Planters

If you’ve used our plans to build this letter planter (or anything else), we’d love to see! Send us a photo here to show off you hard work. 

April 2021: John P. build this beautiful letter P planter for his daughter.

“Here’s a picture of the completed project with Portulaca flowing out of the ledges! Thanks for the idea – My daughter loves it! I’m just glad she didn’t marry a chap with a surname starting with “S”!!!”

Michelle, thank you so much for sharing you beautiful planter!! Remodelaholics, be sure to pay Michelle a visit over at Ellery Designs to see more:

Looking for more great outdoor project plans?

• Build an arched garden arbor trellis
• Build a patio table with drink coolers (or a coffee table version)
• Build a raised garden bed table